The need for potatoes to be cultivated on a large scale basis in Guyana is evident as several partnership proposals have been received by the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) from private investors. This is in light of several successful trials undertaken by the institution over the past year.
To this end, the research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Agricultural Research and Extension (NAREI) is in the process of procuring a State-of-the-art Potato Seed Storage equipment. According to the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Oudho Homenauth, adding such equipment to the list of services already being offered by the institution is necessary since it positions itself to adequately address the need for the commodity to be grown locally.
“Already $5M has been allocated under our capital works program for the procurement of the equipment and will be procured shortly…adding potatoes to the list of commodities we (NAREI), have successfully is important, but having it done on a large-scale basis is ever more necessary,” Dr. Homenauth added.
During the trial phase undertaken by the Research Institute, several successful trials were undertaken in conjunction with farmers in Mahaicony, Little Biaboo- Region 5, La Luni and Kairuni on the Linden Soesdyke Highway, and Regions 7 and 8 namely, Kato, Parima, and Santa Fe.
However, of the notable challenges which were documented by the Institute were poor germination and the development of fungus as a result of improper storage of seed materials.
“What we have noticed is that for the potato seedlings to be viable it has to be stored at a temperature between 7-8˚С….Another area is time and density for the planting of the potato seedling due to our changing weather patterns,” NAREI’s C.E.O said.
One of the spin-off effects of Guyana being able to produce potato on a large-scale basis will be a significant reduction in its Import Bill which continues to be a challenge for Guyana and in the wider CARICOM region. To target this according to, Dr. Homenauth import substitution has to be increased.
Thus far, significant efforts have been made to diversify the crops that can be produced locally such as spices, potatoes, and onions.